'Jews-only' law sparks firestorm

["Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>]

 From the Israeli paper Haaretz:

Background / 'Jews-only' law sparks firestorm
By Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz Correspondent
A proposed law that would allow Jews to bar Arabs from buying homes in their
communities could expose Israel to a fresh wave of condemnation recalling
the now-rescinded UN resolution equating Zionism and racism, critics of the
bill said Wednesday.
In a decision that set off a storm of debate, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
cabinet Sunday voted to endorse a bill that would allow areas within Israel
which have been designated as state land to be devoted to residential use by
Jews alone. The bill still faces considerable legislative hurdles before it
can be passed into law.
Although worded in the gray phraseology of legislative practice, the measure
goes to the heart of a crucial dichotomy of modern Israel: how to maintain a
pluralistic state that is at once formally Jewish in character and genuinely
democratic in practice.
"If we are not already totally an apartheid state, we are getting much, much
closer to it," said former cabinet minister and leftist Meretz party founder
Shulamit Aloni.
Full text at:
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